Author Archive

This event is designed to introduce you to these four particular forms of social media, and how they can be utilised more effectively in our classrooms. We have chosen these four well-known and popular forms to demonstrate how they work, the many varied applications they have in the classroom and how simple it can be to set them up for use on a daily basis.

The four forms of social media we have chosen to explore are:

Blogs

Twitter

Wikis

YouTube

There are many hurdles to overcome when trying to navigate different social medias; understanding what it is they do and exactly how best to use them – especially in our classrooms.

We have researched and experimented and can show you some simple and more importantly, effective ways to use each of these different tools. Please, as this is a learning activity, make the most of this event and participate in the activities that have been provided to ensure you gain the most knowledge and understanding. Even if you have used these types of social media before, visit our pages to see ways we have found to use them in the classroom and add some links, comments or suggestions so that others may benefit from your experience. Let’s help each other collaboratively to construct some new knowledge and skills on our continued journey as life-long learners!

Please follow these simple rules and stay safe on the internet.

If you wouldn’t do or say it in the real world then don’t do it online.

Writing in capital letters online, in an email, on Facebook or in a forum is considered ‘shouting’ and is considered rude.

THINGS IT’S GOOD TO DO

Keep messages short and to the point

Remember the internet is forever – so mean and angry comments will be around for a long time.

Read the guidelines and information about a forum or online discussion before commenting.

Take the time to follow a discussion and read previous postings before commenting.

Read the FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) on a website before submitting a comment or question, the answer may be in the FAQs.

Remember posts on social networking website, forums and discussions can be public.

Social Media

Limit identifying information

Keep information about your private life including school, work place, club memberships and your location to a minimum.

No mobile phone details

You don’t need to put your mobile phone number on your online profiles; your friends and family already have it.

Lock your online profiles and photo albums

Don’t let people you don’t know or trust have access to your photos – remember everything posted on any website can be copied, emailed and saved.

Check your online profiles regularly

Check what others have posted or written on your profile. Someone may have posted something inappropriate or you think is offensive on your profile.

Check you are happy with everything on your profile and delete anything you don’t like.

Block anyone who posts inappropriate or offensive content.

Get permission before posting a person’s photo online

Never post a photo of a person anywhere online without their permission; it may be an invasion of their privacy.

If a person asks you to remove a photo make sure you do.

Think before you post or reply

A comment posted in the heat of the moment or when distressed may be something you regret later.

Avoid getting into arguments online.

Think before posting photos

Remember what you post today may haunt you tomorrow – potential employers often check social networking profiles to assess possible future employees.

Think about what and who are in any photos you post.

Avoid having identifying information in photos such as workplace, school or sport uniforms.

Report abuse

Report any abuse, harassment, bullying or inappropriate content to the website, and if necessary to the Police.

If you become aware of any friends or relatives who are having problems with harassment, bullying or inappropriate content being placed online, report it.

Schools and the Police take online abuse, bullying and harassment very seriously – so make sure you report abuse.

Before you start exploring our event, please take the time to complete our social media survey, as we would like to know how much you know about social media, what you have used, and how you have used it. All survey results will be available from this blog after 16th December.

Co editor, researcher, social media novice (graduating to expert) and advisor to my fellow group members. Twitter page author and co author of social media, social media and the classroom and of course this introduction page and the conclusion page.

Hello, My name is Michelle Irving, I have nearly completed my degree Bachelor of Education (primary). ICT’s and social media have been and I believe will always be a challenge for me but as I have found with a bit, well lets be honest a lot of patience, an open mind and lots of trial and error you too can do amazing things. I still have much to learn but being an organiser of this event has made me explore social media in a way as to take me from my comfort zone into the unknown. I believe social media has a place in the classroom alongside all the other resources that are on hand for teachers to use to teach.

Our students are using social media everyday to communicate therefore utilising it in the classroom will not only engage the students but show how their education has relevance to their real world.

I am responsible for the Twitter page and had never explored Twitter before this event. Like many I assumed that it was a gossip page. Was I wrong.

Cheers

Michelle

Roles and Responsibilities: Researcher, Blog Creator , Blog page author and moderator. Co-author of Introduction and Review page, as well as support person for other team members.

Hello Everyone

My name is Kaaren, and I am currently completing my Bachelor of Education in Primary with a focus on the middle years (Years 4 -9). I love the idea of bringing social media into the classroom, as it demonstrates how we can bridge the divide between a student’s home life and school. I consider myself to be a digital immigrant and believe that the students will be able to teach myself something new, and believe that this could have the potential to build trust and respect amongst the members of my future learning community (that is my future classroom). Through the adoption of social media formats as an effective teaching and learning tools, will enable students to engage and maintain motivation and interest in learning, which is especially vital in the middle years, as it is in this period of adolescence when students are more at risk of disengaging in learning and drop out of school. I hope you all enjoy our presentation and looking forward to your feedback.

Thank You

Kaaren

Roles and Responsibilities: Co-editor; researcher; Wikis in the classroom page author; Co-author of Introduction; Social Media; Social Constructivism and Review pages. Creator of linked socialmedia4444 wiki.

Hello! My name is Christine McCann and I am also working towards a Bachelor of Education in Primary with a Middle Years focus on Maths and English. I love to see innovative ways teachers use social media in their classrooms – I am constantly astounded by the innovative applications and ideas I see. Social media has had such a transformative impact on our everyday lives that I cannot see how we could possibly ignore it in our teaching practices. As a mature age student I myself, I have used social media to research and learn the many skills I have needed to develop in order to be able to study this degree. When I left school there were two computers in the whole school grounds, now in my own household there more computers, both desktop and laptop than there were in my senior school. Amazing. I have learnt to use Twitter, wikis, blogs, google docs and a host of other tools to enhance my learning by sharing with others and this is definitely something that I will employ in my own future classroom. I hope that you enjoy our presentation and that you participate in our activities so that we can all enhance our learning together.

Cheers,

Christine.

Roles and Responsibilities: YouTube page author and moderator.

Hello, My name is Kim Sandford, I am currently in my third year of the Bachelor of Education, Early Childhood. I have in the past considered myself fairly ICT literate, but I now find this not to be true. This I discovered one day I walked into a classroom where the teacher was walking around with an Ipad remotely connected to the whiteboard on which the students were watching a You Tube clip. I remember being totally amazed at how at ease the teacher looked at using this technology in the classroom. And scared to death thinking that I will have to do that one day. In this I chose Youtube as my aspect of social media because of this fear. This collaborative event covers 4 of the most common ICT tool used in our society today, and I myself, only ever having used YouTube to upload a video once, have found it a major learning event and I am sure that some of the information and activities provided in this event will assist you in using ICT’s in the classroom.